Best Stat Monitor

Hello everyone. I watched to reach out and see what everyones opinion is on the best stat monitor for the 15" Retina MacBook Pro. I mainly am concerned while I am gaming. SMC Fan Control says my CPU hovers around 85-90 celsius with fans around 5k - 6k which is acceptable for this type of performance at Retina Resolution. I just downloaded iStat Pro (widget) which is reporting temperature 15 degrees celsius lower than SMC fan control which is considerably lower than what SMC Fan Control is reporting. So my question is, which app is correct? Is there a more detailed/accurate application out there that will give you specific temps? Please give any advice possible. Thanks!

All monitoring software uses the same physical temperature sensors. The difference that you're noting is likely due to SMC Fan Control and iStat Pro reading off of different sensors. Case in point, looking at iStat Menu (not the widget), I see three sensors for my CPU: CPU Die - Analog, CPU Die - Digital Core 0, and CPU Proximity. The current readouts for these temperatures are 57˚C, 62˚C, and 52˚C, respectively - a 10˚C difference at greatest.

iStat Menu allows you to set which sensor shows up on the default display. It's been a while since I used iStat Pro - I don't remember if it allows you to choose the sensors that are displayed. I have no experience with SMC Fan Control.

Basically, choose a program (or a specific sensor) and stick with it. A proximity sensor is likely to be less accurate than the CPU die sensors, but analog vs. digital isn't a big deal. Get used to the temperature readouts from it to get a sense of your baseline and workloads, and you're set. Beyond their display format and sensor selection, the program doesn't make a difference.

All monitoring software uses the same physical temperature sensors. The difference that you're noting is likely due to SMC Fan Control and iStat Pro reading off of different sensors. Case in point, looking at iStat Menu (not the widget), I see three sensors for my CPU: CPU Die - Analog, CPU Die - Digital Core 0, and CPU Proximity. The current readouts for these temperatures are 57˚C, 62˚C, and 52˚C, respectively - a 10˚C difference at greatest.

iStat Menu allows you to set which sensor shows up on the default display. It's been a while since I used iStat Pro - I don't remember if it allows you to choose the sensors that are displayed. I have no experience with SMC Fan Control.

Basically, choose a program (or a specific sensor) and stick with it. A proximity sensor is likely to be less accurate than the CPU die sensors, but analog vs. digital isn't a big deal. Get used to the temperature readouts from it to get a sense of your baseline and workloads, and you're set. Beyond their display format and sensor selection, the program doesn't make a difference.

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Thanks for your response. I will look into iStat Menus and see
how it works in comparison. Thanks again.

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